Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's plan to step down from their royal duties is being compared to Edward VIII's 1936 abdication to be with the woman he loved. This situation that shakes the royal family to its very core also reminds everyone of Lord Louis Mountbatten's letter to Prince Charles that seems to be of relevance today.
The Sussexes' royal exit is being compared to the 1936 abdication crisis, which Prince Charles grew up to. Hence, he knew how it affected his mother and grandmother -- Queen Elizabeth II and the Queen Mother -- that still hanged over him.
At the time, Lord Mountbatten berated Prince Charles about his similarities to Edward VIII when he had careless plans that would affect the household staff, which also seemed to be likened to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's plan today. In the podcast Pod Save the Queen, Daily Mirror's royal editor Russell Myers said that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's exit seemed to be not thoroughly planned out as they didn't consider their royal household staff's future.
He said, via Express, that they didn't think about anyone else but themselves. He even found their plan to be "ill-thought and haphazard" that they didn't carefully think of.
Lord Mountbatten told Prince Charles in the early days that there was a danger in not thinking of others. In the documentary The Madness of Prince Charles, it revealed that the 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma went ballistic and sent the young prince a letter when he learned that that the Prince of Wales didn't think of the household staff and created too much work for them.
Biographer Philip Ziegler said that Lord Mountbatten told Prince Charles that his behavior was "totally indefensible" like Edward VIII. He also reminded him that he should never be like his great-uncle because of what happened to him.
Meghan Markle and Prince William made everyone's jaw dropped when they announced their plan to step down as senior members of the royal family. Business Times, recently, reported that it reminded everyone of the time that Edward VIII left the United Kingdom to be with his wife, Wallis Simpson. The event was then called the 1936 abdication crisis.
After the two got married, they were, reportedly, exiled from Britain and things got more complicated than that. They lived in France and spent their whole retirement there. Now, there are questions if Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will experience the same.
